Sunday, January 04, 2009

Mirabilia QueensI fell in love with Spring Queen back in '98 when Mirabilia first published it. I completed her in 1999. Beware of doing any of the Queens - you'll end up doing them all, as I plan to!

Here she is finished:

I also started Autumn Queen late in 1999 and worked on her into 2000. At some point, I put her aside to work on another project. It always irked me that I never got around to finishing her, especially as I'd completed most of the project (pictured below).

I finally picked her up in October 2008, and it only took me about 2 weeks to finish her off. Here she is completed:

Because I've been on a Mirabilia kick this past year, I decided that I really am going to finish all four Queens. Unfortunately I hurt my back at the end of October so I'm dealing with limited mobility right now - but the upside is that I've been stitching a lot to keep myself occupied. Here's a picture of Winter Queen in progress:

And here she is completed (finished December 23, 2008):

All Queens are stitched on 32 count linen. For some reason, I did Autumn Queen on a nearly-cream linen, whereas the others are done on an antique white. It irks me that it doesn't exactly match, but not enough to redo. I started on Summer Queen in December 2008, because I needed a couple of days break on all of the blue and white of Winter Queen. I should have Summer finished in 2009.

You'll notice that currently none of the Queens are framed. I am waiting until they are all completed, because I'd like to frame them in the same style frame, the same size, similar matting, so that should I want to hang them in a group, they'll fit nicely. I kind of thing it's overkill to hang them in a group, but I want to leave that option open. At this time, I'm actually thinking of just hanging the one that's "in season" and storing the other three, but we'll see.

Additionally, I think I'm going to add Mirabilia's Royal Holiday, aka Christmas Queen, to the list, but will not wait to have that completed to frame the other four.